


Different Comes With The Territory

by ProngsAndPens



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, Found Family, Trans Female Character, fareeha and jesse are bros, it's happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 14:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13572150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProngsAndPens/pseuds/ProngsAndPens
Summary: Turns out figuring yourself out and telling your family you're trans is not that big of a deal, when you're surrounded by love and support. After all, when you're an Overwatch agent, being different comes with the territory.





	Different Comes With The Territory

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot, unbeta-ed, from a friend's prompt about a happy trans Pharah story. Enjoy!

Fareeha was used to the unusual. She was barely a teenager, but when your mother works at the famous world-protecting organisation, unusual comes with the territory. When she was around, growing up amongst legends, she could see how none of them were just “normal”.

Reinhardt was loud and righteous, impressive on the battlefield, yet much calmer indoors, and a beacon of heart and strength no matter what. He was protective, with amazing stories to tell and almost always some time to spare with Ana’s kid.

Torbjörn would spend some time teaching her basic engineering and mechanics, building some toys and robots, too. After all, he was used to children, and had a few of his own.

Ana was busy, too. As Jack’s second in command she had a lot to do. Thus, it fell on people slightly less busy to “babysit” Fareeha, even if she insisted that she didn’t need someone to look after her.

Jack and Gabriel were rarely there, since they were so busy with their own jobs as higher-ups, but they’d smile and nod at her in passing, and she looked up to them all in wonder.

 

* * *

 

 

When Fareeha grew slightly older, she started to feel uncomfortable.

She couldn’t really put words on it, but growing up wasn’t enjoyable. She wanted to talk to her mother about it, but the conversation would have been awkward. Silences and gaps make understanding difficult. Ana noticed some changes, but couldn’t tell if it was her child just being a teenager or something else entirely.

 

* * *

 

 

The first time Fareeha met Jesse McCree, he had no beard. He did have the cowboy aesthetic, but with a different gait and stature to him. Leaner, thinner, hunched, and – according to Gabriel – hanging out with the wrong crowd before he was picked up. There was an aura of mystery surrounding the newcomer, but some proving missions later the babysitting duty fell onto him. He took it up grumbling, but Ana could see that he didn’t truly mind. After all, he was rather young too, and probably needed some time off from shooting bullets at enemies.

Fareeha was nothing but curious, and the last time she’d seen him, he was speaking quietly with her mother. His hat was in his hands, and his shoulders were shaking. She didn’t hear the conversation, but eventually Ana took him in her arms. So Fareeha asked, and that’s when she learned that the tall, brown-haired cowboy wasn’t born in a body that he felt was right. That he wanted to be different, and that he was hoping to get there soon. That who he was inside was going to fit the outside, some day.

There was silence, her mind processing the words, before she turned around.

“So, you’re a boy, then?” She asked, innocently, but it made Jesse beam nonetheless.

“Yup, that I am.” He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “You can call me Jesse.”

Fareeha readily agreed, seeing no problem in it. Her mum had told her before that nicknames and callsigns had a reason to exist, that they were made to fit one’s personality better than names ever could. Jesse being Jesse now was like that. A new name, to fit better.

 

* * *

 

 

A couple days later, Fareeha sought Jesse out. She’d thought about what he said, and made him sit down before asking more questions, this time about herself. Jesse became pensive, and then leaned his chin on his fist.

“Reckon’ you should tell your mother about that. She’d want to know.”

Fareeha hesitated, but she remembered Ana’s acceptance for Jesse, and he assured her that he’d come with if she wanted to.

They came up to Ana while she was working, Jesse a silent guardian behind her, and interrupted her asking for her time. When Fareeha said that it was important, Ana took her attitude in, glancing at Jesse who nodded, and agreed. She finished a couple things and then left work, going with the two of them to sit for tea in her private quarters.

Fareeha explained as best she could, using some of Jesse’s own words, sometimes letting him fill in the blanks. He sat close to her, shoulder to shoulder, and she was relieved for the support. Eventually, to her relief, Jesse was right. Her mother nodded with a small smile on her face, coming up to hug Fareeha and thank her for trusting her with it.

It was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and Fareeha clung to her mother. They didn’t agree on everything, but there was no doubt that Ana loved her dearly no matter what.

They started talking, Jesse providing some more information, before slipping out. This was also a family thing, and he wanted to give them some time together. Besides, he’d done right.

The next day, Fareeha was changed. Happier, more confident, and Jesse was introduced to Fareeha Amari, daughter of Ana Amari. Within the base, not much had changed. After all, different came with the territory, and there was nothing wrong with it.

A super-soldier, a shotgun-wielding man that always seemed to bear a snarky grin, a German soldier with values of times past, a small Swedish engineer with the mind of a genius, the greatest sniper in the world, a brilliant Swiss child prodigy with wings, a cowboy sharpshooter, a cyber-ninja, a genetically modified gorilla scientist from the moon, and a time-travelling Brit? Being trans seemed almost normal, in comparison.

 

* * *

 

 

Fareeha started growing her hair out to shoulder-length, and Ana gifted her some golden ornaments to put at the end of the braids she wanted to do when it would be long enough. Jesse came back from some missions with some makeup or that he thought she’d like.

One day, he busted in her room with the biggest smile she’d ever seen him bear on his face. She immediately knew, and the small packaged syringe he showed her just confirmed it. They hugged for a long time, before sitting on her bed, shoulder to shoulder, as Jesse took his first shot.

Ana was the first one to braid Fareeha’s hair, the first one to clip the golden ornaments, and soon it was Fareeha’s turn to bust into Jesse’s room. They hugged and sat together just like they did for him, shoulder to shoulder, as Fareeha started her own journey.

 

* * *

 

 

Changes came rather fast. Darker hairs started peaking out on Jesse’s chin, and Fareeha sat next to his hospital bed the day he woke up with a flat chest. There were tears that neither of them spoke of beyond the secrecy of their rooms, and Fareeha’s body gained curves that Jesse promised would make anyone blush someday. Jesse’s voice drop was drastic, and they spent a good deal of time together practising and working on voice transition. Jesse’s first deep “Howdy” immediately became a template, and Fareeha assured him that it definitely fit his aesthetic.

 

When Fareeha left for the Egyptian Army, they were both changed people. Jesse had opted for a scruffy beard that suited him like a glove, and Fareeha’s tresses hung down to her shoulders, peppered with the golden ornaments she loved. Brother and sister hugged each other goodbye, promising to talk as often as they could.

 

* * *

 

 

Overwatch fell, and Jesse disappeared off the map, but he never missed any information about the fierce woman soaring through the army’s, then Helix’s ranks. She’d grown up into a figure of strength and protection, captain of her own Raptora squad, bearing a tattoo similar to the one her Ana did. Fareeha missed her mother, and she wished that her brother could be there, but she knew, somehow, that they’d meet again someday.

Ana didn’t miss any either. Their reunion was unexpected, but Fareeha got her mother’s letter, and ultimately found her as she went on a solo mission to arrest the individual known as the Shrike. They stood face to face, mother to daughter, before Fareeha dropped her weapon. They fell into each other’s arms, trying to gather years of lost time into one single hug. The Shrike “got away”, but a mother got her daughter back. And when Fareeha left Helix to secretly join the recalled Overwatch, a sister got her brother back as well.

Enemies learned the hard way not to underestimate the power of those three together. Pharah was a fierce opponent, and trying to harm her family was a very unwise choice. Of course, her brother and mother were right there with her.

 

* * *

 

 

When she was barely a teenager, there were many things Fareeha didn’t know about herself, but she felt different. There were no words she knew that could precisely define what it was. Then she met someone who introduced a concept to her, and she discovered that she was trans. It was unusual, but after all, in Fareeha’s experience, unusual came with the territory. So Fareeha took steps, supported by her family along the way, and became the woman she’d always been inside as well as the leader of the organisation she’d always dreamed to join.

 

And if her body did make someone blush, well. That was a good bonus, wasn’t it?

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this story!  
> Find me at prongsandpens.tumblr.com :)


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